Matt Stephenson, PhD

New Western research reveals how rainfall shapes bird populations New study shows rainfall patterns play a powerful role in shaping bird populations and which species are most vulnerable as precipitation becomes more erratic.

@westernu.ca did a write up on our new paper! Forgive me for being proud of this contribution. ☺️
news.westernu.ca/2026/03/rain...

#ornithology #birds #meta-analysis #rain

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Congratulations to @nickhaddad.bsky.social, co-Director of the @kbslter.bsky.social, and Phoebe Zarnetske on the KBS LTER Executive Committee - they are both on @michiganstateu.bsky.social Main Campus today accepting Outstanding Faculty Awards from The College of Natural Science!

Climatic Variability Threatens Population Growth and Persistence of a Declining Grassland Songbird Determining the factors responsible for population change in threatened populations and the degree to which changing climates might put those populations at risk is one of the most pressing roles of ...

New OA paper today! This one is very important to me as is the culmination of over a decade of incredibly intensive field work in KS prairies. I will walk you through the take-homes...
1/n
#Tallgrass #GRSP #LTER #Konza #PopulationEcology #Rain
dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3...

Where Water Boils the Sky: Steam Worlds and the Search for Life What happens when a planet contains immense quantities of water but is far too hot for that water to remain liquid?

Thanks to new spectra from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), these once-theoretical worlds are rapidly becoming an observational reality.

Learn more: www.seti.org/news/where-w...

Re-upping this position before the December 1st application deadline. I'm looking to hire a post-doc - could be a climate scientist or environmental economist. Ideal start early 2026 but could be later. Please circulate!

Tonight’s #prairie restoration view.

Meet Mark Mba-Wright, professor of mechanical engineering. His work at Iowa State's Bioeconomy Institute exemplifies the integration of visionary ideas with practical applications, driving forward the boundaries of what is possible. research.iastate.edu/faces-of-dis...

(Animated) visualisation of generation and flows 9 types of (meta) data (full text, abstract, license,affiliations, funding, references, PR status, deposits, retractions) across 9 'actors' in the system (manuscript. publishers, crossref, search engine (e.g. crossref), search engine(e.g. openalex), ORCID, CRIS, repository, (search engine, e.g. openaire)

For publication metadata nerds: viz of the generation of various metadata and their flow through the scholarly publishing system. The link goes to the online version that is fully animated, and has additional versions. Wonder if you think this is useful. docs.google.com/presentation...

2025 Publications Awards Winners announced - The Wildlife Society Awards include best authored and edited books as well as journal articles

These 2025 TWS Publication Awards celebrate the best in new books and journal publications on wildlife biology and conservation. Professionals and students alike have brought new and exciting insights to the field.

Tonight’s #prairie restoration view selection: a bur oak (Quercus macrocarpa). Someday, this oak will tower over this former corn field. I can’t wait.

BeeBox: A novel artificial nestbox for bumblebee research, conservation and engagement Pollinators, particularly bumblebees, play a vital role in global food production, yet their populations face severe declines due to habitat loss. While conservation efforts have focused on food p...

Super excited to share that our beebox methods paper is available online at @methodsinecoevol.bsky.social, anyone looking to do some cool bumble science, get in touch! besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

If you're a scientist who's had to cut or cancel your field season because of US budget cuts, DM me here for an oped I'm working on. 🌏🧪

Showy milkweed (Asclepias speciosa) popping up on the edge of a gravel road.

Please share!
Our lab at LSU @lsuscience.bsky.social is looking for a student to join us in Spring or Fall 2026.
If you are interested in mountain birds and GENOMICS, and want to work on a project in Bolivian cloud forests, send me an email montanolab.com/join-us/

Tonight’s #prairie restoration view selection: Hairy false goldenaster (Heterotheca villosa).

In Alabama, a Social Media Influencer Really Gets Wild

This inspirational story of how a “deer hunter, forester, Southern man posting about flowers” became an effective steward and advocate for the protection of grassland remnants in Alabama is absolutely worth a read.

www.nytimes.com/2025/06/24/c...

5 things we learned in EarthCARE’s impressive first year - Earth Online Clouds and aerosols, and their contribution to Earth's energy balance, are already less mysterious after the Earth Cloud, Aerosol and Radiation Explorer's first year in orbit.

Just heard that the EarthCARE (Earth Cloud, Aerosol, and Radiation Explorer) satellite, which was developed to study clouds and precipitation, can actually also detect swarms of insects from space! #LPS25 🌎 🛰️ 🧪 🦗 earth.esa.int/eogateway/su...

About 0.16% of the old growth prairie hangs on in our county of 600k people. Honored to plant an extra 1,000 new acres over the last few years.

Show us the weird slime in your home! The Extremophile Campaign wants photos of weird microbial growth in your home. They're studying slime, crust, or stringy growth—life that grows on your showerhead, sink, water tank, or other places.

Is your bathroom harboring a weird slime? Is there a strange crust underneath your sink? Scientists studying the microbes in our homes want your pictures—and we'd like to see them too! Fill out our quick form for a chance to be featured on our site and social media. 🦠 📸

I talked about our research, basic coyote behavior and life history, how living in urban communities impacts coyote behavior, and what works to reduce conflict between humans and coyotes. It was good to take questions from the council members and have a thoughtful discussion about urban wildlife.

RDM Weekly - Issue 001 A weekly roundup of Research Data Management resources.

Welcome to the first issue of RDM Weekly, a weekly roundup of Research Data Management resources!

To kick off this newsletter, I will be doing a drawing for 1 free @rfortherestofus.com course for anyone who subscribes by Friday! Winner will be notified via email.

open.substack.com/pub/rdmweekl...

"blood" 😅

Fuzzy lil jellybeans

(Bobolinks)

A watercolor lizard is getting ready for his role in a complex research figure design.

#sciart #ecology

A checklist for designing and improving the visualization of scientific data Nature Cell Biology - Creating clear and engaging scientific figures is crucial to communicate complex data. In this Comment, I condense principles from design, visual perception and data...

I gave in! After students asking for it, I now made a simple figure design checklist.
To help all scientists w/o graphic skills create clear, accessible, and truthful charts!
-> Out in @nature Cell Biology: rdcu.be/erwl4

#DataVisualization #PhD #SciComm

Thx for review @bethcimini.bsky.social + 2

Red-winged blackbird nest parasitized by a Sora in June 2009 in south-central North Dakota. Photo: L.D. Igl.

TIL that Sora will parasitize Red-winged blackbird nests 🤯🦉
doi.org/10.22621/cfn...

AvianLexiconAtlas: A database of descriptive categories of English-language bird names around the world Common names of species are important for communicating with the general public. In principle, these names should provide an accessible way to engage with and identify species. The common names of spe...

ooooh new paper out today. a couple of years ago a big group of us were like "hey let's spend a few weeks painstakingly looking up the sources of every official bird common name" and as of today, you too can join us in our ornitholetymological (yes i made that up) rabbit-hole:

Iowa State ecologist studying water treatment wetlands to optimize benefits Do wetlands engineered for water quality treatment function in ways that provide benefits for biodiversity, similar to Iowa’s natural wetlands?

Research takes time - it's worth it! Slowly, as data is gathered, we learn more and can implement what we've learned. Check out this project by Charlie Loewen @loewen-ecology.bsky.social‬ on water treatment wetlands designed to improve Iowa's water quality, ecosystems, and sustainable agriculture.